3D Map Reveals Human Brain in Greatest Detail Ever

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The postmortem brain of a 65-year-old woman has been transformed
into a new 3D map revealing the intricate architecture of the
human noggin on a scale finer than a human hair.

The map, known as "BigBrain," is freely available online, and has
a resolution of 20 microns in each dimension, researchers report
in a new study.

"The BigBrain is the first ever brain
model in 3D which really presents a realistic human brain with
all the cells and all the structures of a human brain," study
researcher Karl Zilles of the Juelich-Aachen Research Alliance
and the Research Center Julich in Germany said in a press
briefing Wednesday (June 19). [ Inside
the Brain: A Photo Journey Through Time ]

BigBrain will serve as a reference brain, which provides
scientists with a common tool for describing the brain at a
microscopic scale. "It's just like a map of a country," said
Christof Koch, chief scientific officer of the Allen Institute
for Brain Science in Seattle, who was not involved in the
research. "If we want to know where to go, it's important to know
the lay of the land," Koch said.

The first comprehensive brain map was produced by German
neurologist Korbinian Brodmann at the turn of the 20th century.
Brodmann's map revealed the brain's detailed structure, but in
just two dimensions. Modern reference brains have been mapped
using magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI ),
but these only have a resolution of about 1 cubic millimeter. In
contrast, the BigBrain has a resolution that's 50 times better.

To create BigBrain, the researchers used a tool called a
microtome to
slice the postmortem brain (embedded in paraffin wax) into
more than 7,000 sections, each 20 microns thick (about the
thickness of plastic cling wrap). They mounted the sections on
slides and stained them to reveal the cellular architecture. The
slides were then scanned and reconstructed by a supercomputer
into a 3D brain. The entire process took about 1,000 hours of
labor.

Because the brain sections are so fragile, working with them
often creates rips and tears in the tissue. Using
image-processing tools, the researchers were able to repair these
small imperfections.

The new reference brain will allow researchers to model the brain
and study various brain diseases at the microscopic level. For
example, the data from brain-imaging studies could be integrated
with BigBrain to improve the spatial resolution. BigBrain could
also be used to guide the placement of electrodes for
deep brain stimulation, an effective treatment for the
tremors of Parkinson's disease.

BigBrain's developers are currently working on incorporating
information from molecular studies of the brain, including
research findings on chemical receptors or gene activity. The
Allen Institute for Brain Science, which has developed detailed
maps of the gene activity in the mouse and human brains, is
considering a possible collaboration with BigBrain, Koch told
LiveScience.

BigBrain provides a detailed view of one brain, but there's
variability between brains of different people. Future efforts
may expand the map to take into account some of this variability,
the researchers said.